Midnight Rendevous
by Peliqua
Summary: NejiTen Oneshot. NejiTen fluff - Post-timeskip. Follows the account of one night's training between Tenten and Neji.


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It was to her years of training with Neji that Tenten owed most of her skills, as well as scars. Their sparring was always rigorous, always hard, but it had made her into an adaptable kunoichi, one to be feared. She supposed that her ability to weild hundreds of weapons at once might be scary enough, but it helped that during their sparring she had developed deadly accuracy as well. 

It was to Tenten's commitment to her ranged attacks that Neji owed his Kaiten. Without her near constant barrages, the honing of his Kaiten would have been impossible.

Yes, the pair found each other to be quite useful sparring partners. Each session was mutually benfical, and neither had ever given less than their best, though that was mostly because Neji was far too proud to lose and Tenten liked to let him know it was possible.

And though she hadn't beaten him a single time over the years, it was becoming hard to deny that someday, she would. Steel moved like liquid in her grasp, and anything- _anything_ could be seen as a weapon, if she decreed it so.

Things were no different tonight, as the sounds of chakra discharges wrack the air and send many a scared pigeon to flight.

He stands in the centre of his homemade crater, slightly winded despite his successful defletion of her last bombardment. She had begun surrounding her thrown weapons with chakra, and they acted obnoxiously similar to magnets when touched by the Kaiten.

_Difficult to throw off,_ he notes silently.

The next flurry of weapons comes all too soon and as much as he himself doesn't believe it, there is no time to start his Kaiten. He ducks backwards at an awkward angle and feels the sharp discs whip up his shirt as they pass dangerously close to his stomach. Somewhere in the bushes nearby, a girl giggles.

The night air soon fills with the cautious chirping of crickets, and the eerie calm is restored, but he can feel her watching him, preparing something.

Well, Tenten had been talking about trying something new today, hadn't she?

A barrage of a dozen hooked flails fly at him from his right, and he executes his Kaiten with haste as the hail of iron bears down on him.

As the second attack clatters to the ground around him, Neji frowns slightly – This was nothing new, and the absence of Tenten's usual surprises made him uneasy. It wasn't unsusual of her to do things like throw rocks or sticks at him, or maybe even send in a bunshin - anything to keep him on his toes, she had once said - but tonight was becoming predictable. It was that more than anything else, that made him wonder if he should fear her finale. 

His answer comes as he hears a faint sizzling sound on the ground below him, and his Byakugan finds the exploding notes that hang from the flails only seconds too late.

The explosion must have been heard on the other side of Konoha, because it deafens him and temporarily blots his vision with its intensity. It throws him violently backat least fifty feet, and he marvels that his clothes are intact when he lands almost clumsily on one foot. Was that all?

No. Sparks fly and suddenly the blade of a katana meets one of Neji's kunai, barely raised in time to parry the furious attack of a certain kunoichi, garbed in pink and a delighted smirk. Her swings are precise and deadly as the two strike and dodge each other, Neji throwing in his Jyuuken as a backup to add spectacular blasts of blue chakra to the duel.

As the fight inevitably gains intensity, Tenten's swipes become violently fast, and in a moment of startled surprise, Neji realizes she's really not playing. And then suddenly theres an explosion note tacked to his knife, and he casts away the already flaming kunai while trying not to wonder exactly how she was dextrous enough to pull that off.

She takes a moment to laugh at him before charging, hoping to catch him unarmed with a stab, but already he's drawn his kodachi- it's well made, she's quite the blacksmith- and is parrying her blows perfectly. Soon he's pushing her back, his arrogance back in full force as he even uses a hand to deflect some of her blows.

Internally, Tenten could almost laugh, despite the seriousness of the sparring. Neji could deflect hits and deal crippling blows with only slight slaps, and had anyone been watching, she would certainly look foolish. She was fighting him with all she had, only to be deterred by a gentle touch.

She snorts, but her mind is back on the fight within seconds, as Neji takes advantage of an inaccruate block. He lets out a growl as his hand speeds toward her shoulder, glowing with chakra.

With a curse, she takes the hit hard on her collarbone, feeling the electric pain course through her as a Tenketsu is forced closed. She draws in a sharp breath and staggers back a few steps, her mind reeling as she feels her chakra struggle to flow.

She would never get used to being hit by the Gentle Fist.

She looks up at Neji, who stands in a ready stance not too far off, a tiny smirk playing on his features.

"You haven't used explosives in a long time." He says, raising one brow in an expression that said very little of anything but his ego.

"Don't tell me you've missed them?" She teases back, before raising her blade again. She had promised herself that she'd train in blades today,and she loved it. There was nothing in the world like holding 23 inches of bladed steel.

And then they are off again, off in the turning rhythm of their own dance steps, insane and instinctive, yet meticulously trained. Tenten's heart makes a habit of skipping beats at each close call she evades, and each hit she _almost_ makes.

As the two begin to circle each other, Neji's chakra burning and her blade glinting, Neji's eyes flash a dangerous silver, and Tenten meets his gaze determinedly. It was hard not to be passionate about the fight, and despite the carefully contained person he is, Neji found himself smiling.

She lunges forward in a quick slash at his shoulder, and he slides to the left in a deft movement towards her flank. Her strike falls tragically short and he immediately counterattacks, making a sharp jab at her inner thigh that causes her to yelp shrilly. She sways before falling to her knees, her leg already spasming in tune with her coil systems, as his Jyuuken ran circles around her chakra control.

"You suck, you know that?" she says from her place on the ground, biting back pain as she watches Neji back away a few feet.

"I'm not the one staggering." He retorts, unable to keep the smug look off his face; though in all fairness, he wasn't even trying to.

"Who's staggering?" she laughs, lunging and ending the childish banter with a skillful spin of her sword, which narrowly misses Neji's arm as he is forced to lean sharply backwards. Immediately taking control, she drives him back several steps, her blade making dangerous whipping sounds as it cuts the air around him eagerly, always _just_ shy of making a hit.

Then finally, with a loud ripping noise, her katana finds its mark.  
By the time Hyuuga Neji realizes what has happened, a strikingly large slash fills the space where the middle of his shirt should be- A thin, delicate cut running horizontally on his stomach.  
He grimaces and drives forward again, his lean abdomen now exposed to the cool night air, and he feels his bragging rights slipping away.

Determined to dominate her, he begins breaking forward with renewed vigor, until another hit is landed on Tenten- This time, the Tenketsu positioned high on her breast, and she feels her knees buckle beneath her again.

Feeling to her limbs is lost in a numb moment as she clutches her chest and a feeling of extreme weakness comes over her. She feels too weak to even return the smirk he offers, and struggles to hold up her hand, signaling her need to a rest.

He shakes his head in response, kneeling in front of her. "We should finish for tonight." She breathes heavily through her response, and tucks some stray hair behind her ear. "Okay."

And then, they were just people again. Just two people that had had a hell of a fight, but were no longer willing to harm one another – at least not tonight.

After a few seconds of watching him with _something_ in her eyes, she smiles. "Then you forfeit."

He smirks. "Arrogant." His breath comes out only slightly shortened, as if he had barely exerted himself… but the tension in his muscles tell her that she had provided some challenge.

She laughs quietly, glancing up at the sky. It was by now a deep, velvety blue, the crescent moon acting as a centerpiece for the mosaic of twinkling stars.

"That's rich, coming from you."

He shakes his head and lets the insult slide, sitting cross legged in front of her.

"I'll open your Tenketsus again, turn around." He orders in his usual curt tone, and she complies – It was the same every time he ended up closing one -- he rarely let her leave without fixing it.

She nods, making a low 'Mm' sound of acknowledgement, feeling him lay his hands on her shoulders. Allowing her head to fall backwards slightly, she feels him slowly knead his chakra into her, easing open her Tenketsus again with the gentlest Jyuuken he was capable of.

She would never let him know, but it felt like just about the best thing in the world. She wears a delirious smile as she drifts to and from sleep.

Then again, she supposed that Neji couldn't go all his life using a taijutsu style that focused on muscle and chakra, and not end up learning how to give a damn good massage. Allowing her mind to wander as he slowly rolls his palms down her back, she lets out a quiet sigh, which she knows she shouldn't have let him hear.

Her hands drop to her sides and she leans backwards into him, vaguely aware that he was taking longer tonight with his Tenketsu-fixing. She felt her Chakra moving again, a feeling of total relaxation filling her, and still he continues for a good three or four extra minutes – Which, for Neji, might as well have been years.

Finally giving up at trying to sit straight, she allows herself to fall unceremoniously backward, ending up half on the grass and half in his lap, breathing deep breaths even as he gently draws his hands away.

"Tenten." He says, his voice coaxing her wide honey eyes open. Staring down at her is a pair of impassive white eyes, the mouth below them set into a smirk.

"Yes?" she asks, making no move to get up.

He points to his stomach, and the cut she had left there. "I'm going to bleed on you if you don't sit up."

"O-Oh." She says intelligently, slowly righting herself as she begins searching through her pockets.

After a few moments of only the sounds of crickets, Neji asks what she is looking for. "Bandages." She replies simply, which of course lead Neji to ask why.

"Your stomach." She says, wearing a look that made it seem like that should have been obvious.

He states that he doesn't want her to bandage him. She counters that she is 'Gonna to do it anyway'. He frowns slightly.

"No."

"You're not going home with a ripped stomach, Neji. It's not happening." She says firmly, though the sternness in her voice is lost on the placid male.

"Tenten. I can bandage myself." He replies, willing himself not to look in her eyes. It seemed to work against him when he did.

"Well, I bet I could massage myself too if I really tried, but I let you feel obligated to do it." She says, her brows brought closer together as she tries to fight back the memories of the massage long enough to look angry.

"You can't open Tenketsus like I can, Tenten." He says with a tiny sigh.

"Oh yea? What makes you think you're so great?" She asks, and his frown deepens. What an ungrateful girl she was. Quite horrible, really.

Neji merely shakes his head, moving as if to get up from the ground, but there is a flash of metal and Tenten has a kunai to his throat. Her devious expression tells of nothing but mischievousness.

He frowns. It was the same any time she cut him- she rarely let him leave without fixing it. Stupid girls, and their guilt.

"You wouldn't." He says evenly.

"Why not? I can bandage a dead body." She counters with a laugh, and Neji finally concedes, lying backwards on the grass.

Not because he thought she would cut him- no, there was nothing but complete trust- but because saving himself the grief was in his best interest.

Before long, Neji has propped himself up on his elbows, allowing Tenten to bandage him- but it is soon enough decided that his half of a shirt is only getting in the way, and she demands he take it off, a request he grants in the interest of remaining nag-free.

She works quickly, doing her best not to give his pale chest _another_ appraisal. She supposed she had always wondered what it looked like, and she had always thought Neji would end up being scrawny – as it turned out, she was wrong.

As her fingers slide along his abdomen, and she gently used gauze to mop up the excess blood, he wishes her hands weren't as warm or delicate as they were. Absently, he watches her wide eyes as she watches her deft fingers, noticing for what could have been the first time that they seemed to contain some green.

Finally she ties the knot over his belly button and gives him a little nod, rising.

"Alright, I won't kill you. You can get up." She says, that obnoxious little hint of... _something_ creeping into her voice. She offers a hand down to him, which he takes.

"As if you could."

"Arrogant." She laughs, her movements relaxed and animated.

Making a sloppy tiger seal, she hums out 'kai' and her summoned weapons poof into large clouds of smoke, in the midst of which she leaves Neji, as she begins to walk away.

"Sleep tight." She says, waving behind her as she hears Neji cough slightly.

She doesn't need to look back to know that Neji has waved in return.

"Hn." Is his only answer otherwise, and with what he had to convince himself was not a smile, he walks in the opposite direction, making for the Hyuuga estate.

The two had always found each other to be reliable, efficient training partners – To say they didn't learn something new every day would be a lie.

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End file.
